Water valve control for concrete mixers



Jan. 5, s. SHAFER. JR 1,839,807

WATER VALVE CONTROL FOR CONCRETE MIXERS Filed May '19, 1928 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 1 INVENTOR. Samuel Shafer, J11,

Jan. 5, 1932. SHAFER JR I 1,839,807

WATER VALVE CONTROL FOR CONCRETE MIXERS Filed May 19, 1928 2 sheets-sheet 2. jgZ Z 1%. 5

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OINVENTOR.

Arrow E39 Patented Jan. 5, 1932 Y lTED srA-TEs PATENT. OFFICE I SAMUEL SHAFER,.JR., or MILWAUKEE, Wisconsin, Assienon TO 01mm BELT oom- IPANY, 0F MILWAUKEE, wIsooNsIN, A CORPORATION 01 WISCONSIN" WATER VALVE CONTROL FUR MIXERS Application filed May 19',

This invention relates to valve .control mechanism for the water systems of-concrete mixers, and has for one of its objects to provide an apparatus of this character which will be simple in construction, comparatively inexpensive to manufacture and install, and more efiicient in use than those which have been heretofore proposed. 7

It is common practice today to provide cons crete mixers with water-receiving tanksor receptacles which are supplied with water from any suitable source and measure predetermined quantities thereof which are in troduced from time to time through a discharge pipe into the mixing drum or chamber. In some instances the supply of water to the tank, as well as the discharge therefrom,is 'controlledby a three-Way valve suitably connected to the supply pipe, the discharge'pipe and the tank.. In other instances separate valves are provided in the supply pipe and in the discharge-pipe, which valvesmay or may not be interconnected.

Under the recently advanced water-cement ratio theory of concrete mixing, which holds that the strength of concrete is primarily dependent upon the ratio of water to cement, it becomes of prime importancejto accurately measure the quantity of' water introduced into a mixing drum or chamber with each charge of'cement and aggregates, since a very slight variation in the quantity of water relative to the amount of cement employed has quite a material efiect on the strength of the resulting concrete.

In measuring. water with the valves rhere-, tofore employed upon concrete mixers it has been found practically impossible to accurately gage the amount of water introduced into a mixing drum due to the fact that where three-way valves were employed, as above mentioned, there is a pointin their movement during which both the supply and discharge pipes are opened simultaneously, with the re sult that some of the Water from the supply pipe passes directly into, the discharge pipe without entering the measuring tank. The samehas been truerto'v agreater or less extent where separate valves have been employed in the supply and discharge pipes and intercon- 1928. Serial No. 279,137.

that the supply valve is fully closed before the discharge valve is openedito admit water from the measuring tank tothe drum, and likewise tosee that thedischarge' valve is fully closed before the supply valve is'opened to admit a fresh charge of. water to the mealsuring tank. However, these independently operable valves areopen to the objection that two independent manual. movements are. necessary for each charging-andeach dis-- charging operation of the measuring with'a consequent loss of time and slowing, down ofthe whole operation of the mixer. l

The present inventionrelates particularly to the type of water-control apparatus. in. which separate supply and discharge valves are employed, and: has for its prime object the provision of interconnecting means for these valves whereby they may both beoperated from open to closed position and vice-verse bya single manual movement, while at the same" time provision is made by which each valve willbe full-y closedabefore the other is opened, to theend that water may neverpass directly from the supply pipe to the d i's'-' charge pipe without entering the measuring tank. It thus results'that a closercontrol of the amount of water supplied to each batch of cement and aggregates may be maintained, while at the same time the operating, cycle is not lengthened in any. respect and is main tained at a minimum.

[With the above and other objectsin veiw, which will appear as the description pro ceeds, the invention consists in the novel'details of construction and combinations and arrangementsofparts more fully hereinafter described and particularly pointed out in the. appended claims,

' Referring more particularly tothe accomppanying drawings forming apart of this specification in which like-parts are desig-t with their controlling valves, and a device constructed in accordance with the present invention for actuating said valves, and

"Figs. 2,3, 4 and 5 are horizontal sectional views taken approximately on the plane indic ated by the line 2-2 of Fig. 1, looking down and showing the various successive positions of the parts through a cycleof operation of the valves.

Referring more particularly to the said drawings, 10 indicates a measuring tank or receptacle, of a well known form commonly employed upon: concrete mixers, which is supportedupon afrainework 11, and which has atone end a combined supply anddis chargemanifold 12. WVater issupplied to. the said manifold 12 througha supply pipe 13, controlled by a valve 14, while water is discharged from the said manifold through a discharge pipe 15 which leads into the mixing drum or chamber 16 in a well-known manner. Said'discharge pipe is controlled by a valve '17. The valves 14 and 17 may be of any preferred form, being here shown as comprising a well-known type of swinging gate valve.

The gate of the supply valve 14 is pivotally mounted upon a pin or shaft 45 to which is rigidly secured an operating lever 46 whereby the saidgate may be swung from open to closed position in the ordinary manner. The outer endof the said operating lever 46 is providedwith a pin 47,-which is received in a the elongated slot 18,-provided at one end of a link 19, the other end of which is removably pivotally secured as at 20 to the mam ually operating lever 21. The said lever 21 is pivotally'mounted as at 22-upon the mixer frame 11 "and may be provided with suitable supporting and guiding means 23 substantially a's-shown. it

In like manner the discharge valve 17 has its gate carried by shaft or pin 25 which also rigidly carries the operating arm 26, the outer end of which is provided with a pin 27 working in the elongated slot .28 provided in one end of alink 29, the other end of which is de-- tachably and pivotally secured as at 30 to the manual :operating lever 21. 1 The said lever 21 is provided with a plurality of holes or apertures 31 which are adapted to receive the pivoting pins 20 and 30 of the links 19 and 29 respectively, whereby adjustments may be made .to provide greater or less throw of the arms 16 and 26. i e

The casing of the valve 14 is provided with an ear '32'to which is pivotally secured, as at 33, one end of a'cu'rved link 34,: the other end of whichhas secured to it as at 35 one 41, the other end of which is secured to the pin'2'7 carried by the arm 26. v

- The operation of the invention will be clear from reference to Figs.2,.3, 4 and 5, which illustrate various successive steps in the valve cycle.-- lnFig; 2 the supply valve 14 is shown in its closed position, while the discharge valve 17 is shown in its open position, and

assuming that in these positions the measur-' ing tank 10has been completely discharged the operation will be as follows:

The hand lever 21 is grasped by the operator and moved toward the right as viewed in Fig. 2, which movement will be transmitted through the link 29 and pin 27 to the operating arm 26 of the valve 17, which will start'the valve gate from open to closed position. During this initial movement of the operating handle 21 the pin 47 of the operating arm 46 of valve 14 will ride from the extreme outer end to the inner end of the elongated slot 18 inlink 19 so that no movement will be transmitted to the gate of the supply valve 14. I

When the. hand lever 21 has reached mid position illustrated in Fig. 3 the pin'47 will have reached'the' inner end of the "elongated slot 18 and further movementof the hand lever 21 toward the right will then be transmitted to the operating arm 46 to cause the gate of valve 14 to begin its movement from closed to open position.

It will benoted, however, that in the position shown in Fig. 3 the pin 27, the pivot 38 and the gate shaft 25 are in substantial alignment and any further movementtoward the right of the parts of valve 17 will have the 1 effect of changing "the pull of spring 41 from the left hand side of shaft 25 to the right hand side thereof, so'that as soon as the lever 21 has been moved slightly further toward the right the spring 41 will act upon the right hand side of the shaft 25 and will serve to snap the gate of'the'valve 17 to closed positionwith the pin 27 riding to the inner end of the elongated slot 28 of link 29. It thus results that'thevalve 17 will be completely closed before the valve 14 has begun to open and therefore no water from the supply pipe 13 can be transmitted directly to the discharge pipe 15, but .must enter the measuring tank .10. g 1 1 Continued movement of the hand lever 21 toward the right will bring the parts into position shown in Fig. 4 in which the supply valve14 is fully open andthe discharge valve fully closed, duringwhich time the -measuring tank 10 will bev filled from the supply pipe. By reversing the movement of the hand lever 21 and moving it toward the left from the position shown in Fig. 4 to that shown in Fig. 5 its movement will be first transmitted through thelink l9 and pin 47 to the operating arm 46 of valve 14, thereby starting the closing movement of the gate of this valve. During such initial movement of the hand lever 21 no motion will be transmitted to the discharge valve gate owing to the fact that the pin 27 of operating arm 26 will ride from the outer to the inner end of the slot 28, as will be readily understood from Figs. 4 and 5. When in the position shown in Fig. 5 the pin 47, pivot 33 and gate shaft 45 are in substantial alignment, and further movement of the parts toward the left will serve to transfer the pull of spring 36 from the right hand to the left hand side of gate shaft 45 with the result that the gate of supply valve 14 will be snapped toclosed position, pin 47 riding from the" outer to the inner end of slot 18. Further movement of hand lever 21 toward the left to the initial positionshown in Fig. 2 will then be transmitted through link 29 and pin 27 to arm 26, whereby the gate of valve 17 will be moved from closed to open position and water from the tank 10 will be discharged through the discharge pipe 15 into the mixer drum.

It will be clear from the foregoing'that, although the two valves are operable from I a single manually operated means whereby they may both be moved through a single manual operation, their respective actions may be delayed so that both of them may not be open at the same time. As above pointed out it results from this construction that water can never pass directly from the supply pipe 13 to thedischarge pipe 15, but must always pass first from the supply pipe 13 to the measuring tank 10, and it therefore follows that the amount of water supplied to the drum 16 may always be accurately measured.

While one form of the invention has been illustrated and described, it is obvious that those skilled in the art may vary the details of construction as well as the precise arrangement of parts without departing from the spirit of the invention, and therefore it is not wished to be limited to the above disclosure except as may be required by the claims.

What is claimed is:

1. In a valve control mechanism, the combination of supply and discharge valves; actuating means for opening and closing said valves; connections between said'actuating means and each of said valves for initiating closing movement of one valve in advance of the starting of opening movement of the other valve; and additional means for completing such closing movements.

2. In a valve control mechanism the combination of supply and discharge valves; actuating means for opening and closing said valves; connections between said actuating means and each of said valves for initiating closing movement of one valve in advance of the starting of opening movement of the other valve; and additional snap-action means for completing such closing movements prior to the opening of said other valve.

3. In a valve control mechanism, the combination of supply and discharge valves; actuating means for opening and closing said valves; lost motion connections between said actuating means and each of said valves, adapted to initiate closing movement of each valve inadvance of the starting of opening movement of the other valve; and additional resilient means for completing such closing mqvements prior to the opening of said other va vs.

4. In a valve control mechanism, the combination of supply and discharge valves having operating arms, a manually operable lever; links connected to said lever; lost motion connections between said links and said arms; and spring means connected to said arms for snapping said valves to open and closed position.

5. In a valve control mechanism, the com- I bination of supply and discharge valves having operating arms, a manually operable lever; slotted links pivotally connected to said lever; pins carried by said arms engaging said slots; springs connected to said pins; and curved links connected to said springs and the casings of said valves.

6. A non-bypass valve control mechanism for a pair of valves, one of which is open while the other is closed, comprising means for sequentially initiating movement of the open valve toward its closed position, and of V the closed valve toward its open position; and additional means for completing said closing movement of the open valve before iaid opening movement of the closed valve is egun.

7. A non-bypass valve control mechanism for a pair of valves, one of which is open while the other is closed, comprising means for sequentially initiating movement of the open valve toward its closed position,'and of the closed valve toward its open position; and additional means for completingsaid closing movement of the open valve before said opening movement of the closed valve is begun, both of said means being operable to move said valves in both directions.

In testimony whereof I aifix my signature.

SAMUEL SHAFER, JR. 

